- This is the first sound you hear
on Deadpool's original score.
- And this is the actual synthesizer
that played that sound.
- And that is Tom Holkenborg, the composer
of the Deadpool soundtrack.
- This is the ARP 2600, used a lot
on Deadpool for these kind of riffs
to filter it up and to filter it down.
- Its always been about the combination
of electronic elements with organic elements.
- I remember saying to Tim Miller,
when I finally had in my head what
Deadpool was gonna be
- I said, picture Frankie Goes to Hollywood
and Miami Vice, but then on acid.
- That's your, that's gonna be you're score.
(glass shattering)
(cars honking)
- Tom Holkenborg does it all. Originally known
for his dance music productions
under stage name Junkie XL.
- He's a DJ and producer turned film composer.
- He's (inaudible) in traditional or orchestral composition
- As he is in these racks of analog gear
surrounding him.
- And that's what makes him so appealing to Hollywood.
- He has written the scores of
major Hollywood hits like Deadpool,
Tomb Raider and Mad Max: Fury Road.
- Mostly from this California studio.
- I love to uh collect instruments
and I've been doing it since the early 80's and
I never sold anything that I bought.
- It looks more like a lab it looks more
like um a spaceship if you will.
- When someone thinks about film scoring,
this is not the type of environment
that they would imagine a score being made in.
- No that's true, but it has a lot
to do with the fact that scoring
is not my background, my background is actually
being uh an engineer and a producer in the studio
and then later on a musician.
- Back in the late 90's, a curly haired Tom
wasn't thinking about film at all
- Until he heard one of his Junkie XL
songs used in a certain vampire movie.
- Blade 1997
- No! Wait, your song is during the blood rave?
- Yeah and the fights after that.
- It starts with a remix of New Order
and then it goes into my track
(screaming)
- When you hear your piece of music
for the first time in an environment
where it was not meant to be
- And yes, every music can play in the film
but I didn't make it for the film
- I made it for something else.
- Then I was so surprised by how it worked
that I really got interested in
pursuing it myself and then in
2002 I decided to moved to L.A.
And to really pursue this full time.
- Tom explained that in the old days of film,
the score was more of an after thought.
- So the old school way of writing a film score
was that technically, the film was already done.
- The work methods with computers has
changed film scoring drastically.
- Before that, directors would never
hear the score until they got onto the (inaudible)
and they would hear the orchestra
actually play it live for the first time.
- So now since, 1984/85 directors are
able to listen the score
what its gonna sound like
- So that was the big major change for that.
- Now, a composer would actually get notes on the score
- Sometimes you work on a movie where
so what's the process, you have
three completely different endings
of the same movie and at a certain point
they decide which ending they want.
- But you have to write for all of them?
- Exactly, so it's this wouldn't happen in 1960
- It's usually not a two way street
unless you work with visionary directors.
- For instance that's the case with uh
George Miller that I did Mad Max with.
- There was once scene in Mad Max
this very emotional scene and I think I've
attacked that scene I think twenty, twenty four times
and George kept saying no it's not quite right
it's not quite right and uh so
we were really getting up to the deadline
uh to get this music approved for the first
recording session.
- So we recorded a couple of these pieces
- One piece really resonated with
the conductor and they did two versions of it
and they did it really beautifully.
- And the next day, I just slided one of those
those recordings in underneath that scene
- An George walked in and he said "What is this?"
- I said it's one of these older things
that you didn't like and uh we just
- And he's like its beautiful
- And then the music continued
but then ran out of sync with the picture.
- And then George said
"We should continue this vibe longer"
- And I said well I can record another one
- He said "No no that's not what I mean"
"I mean the picture"
- And so he immediately ran back to his wife
and they started making changes in the picture,
lined it back up with the music
- I did then did changes in the music
- Then they changed the cut and
eventually he was super happy with the scene.
(dramatic music)
- I play four, five different instruments
- I play multiple bands and I've always
been a synthesizer freak hence the amounts
- But there's also twenty drum kits
and huge amounts of guitars, self made instruments.
(guitar strumming)
- It still has a little bit of the sound
- Tom doesn't just play instruments
he makes them, including this one
he built for 300: Rise of an Empire.
- He calls it the piano from hell.
- I took a piano, I hacked all the wood away
so now you're left with what they call the harp.
With just the strings on it
- I turned the harp upside down.
- I put a new enclosure around it
- And now I put bass and guitar pickups
in front of the strings and I play it
with sticks and with mallets.
- The reason why this screen is here
for instance that low piano note
carries like I think three to
five hundred pounds of weight on one string
- So if it snaps it can take your head clean off.
- You'd probably had to have protection
- Well yeah, when I play this thing
- I actually wear like a riot protection helmet
with thick plastic that takes it to the chest
- So if it snaps, that's why I have this here
- The pickups will take the signal
and turn it into like a whole
different quality of sound
so it starts to sound way more
like a bass guitar and a guitar.
- Tom records the piano, and then samples it
like this
- So I use this actually for Black Mass
that gangster movie with Johnny Depp.
- It's so interesting, I can hear that metallic rumble
- Yeah, yeah
- Are these altered at all or are they straight samples?
- This is straight recorded
not even treated.
- Were there films that were more
difficult for you than others to find
- Every film is difficult for me.
- Sometimes in a day the atmosphere
might turn into such a vinegar
that the fact that you play one note
- Like one note is already wrong
even though you know that on any
piece of music you need hundreds
of single notes to make a music piece.
- Yeah it's hard every time.
- How do you think film scorers
will continue to evolve?
- What do you think they'll,
they're going to look like in the future?
- I think film scorers will become
more and more interesting as more and more
interesting people will enter the field.
- For the longest time periods
especially from the sixties, seventies and eighties
it always felt like, there's only room
for film composers in this world
that have a thorough understanding
how the orchestra works, like
John Williams or Jerry Goldsmith or
(inaudible)
- And now we're having a very interesting
mixed bag of people with such
incredible backgrounds
- Even though it's going slow
we're seeing more and more cultural diversity.
- We're seeing more gender diversity
so it's getting there.
(heavy synth music)
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